I've Been Looking For This All Along
by Lady Josephynne
Summary: Begins at the end of Frostbite, Mason doesn't die, and Rose realizes she has feelings for him. I'm horrible at summaries, please forgive me. A lot's going to happen after that though.
1. Of Passionate Encounters

_Mason realized this too, and his features hardened as he threw down the gun._

"_Get out!" I screamed. He was still in the sun, still safe._

But he didn't listen to me. He ran toward us, out of his protective light. I redoubled my struggles, hoping I'd pull Isaiah's attention way from Mason. I didn't. Isaiah shoved me into Elena.

Mason charged toward us, and at the last possible second, he twisted to the side, yanked a silver stake, obviously stolen when he had left the ski lodge with Eddie and Mia, from his jacket pocket, and _staked Isaiah through the heart._ The horrible old Strigoi dropped to the ground, hands clutched at the wound in his chest around the stake that he couldn't touch. Blood spurted uncontrollably, and soon enough, he was dead.

Elena dropped me in her shock, and I used the distraction to run towards the fireplace and grab the antique swords. I tossed one to Mason, and the two of us proceeded to keep her at a safe distance from us, far enough from those cold, merciless hands, same as Isaiah's, that had almost killed Mason.

Elena had an enraged look on her face, but there was a shadow of uncertainty, now that Isaiah was no longer there for her to hide behind, and white fangs flashed as she spoke. "I am going to make the two of you-"

"Suffer, pay, and regret I was ever born?" I shot back, always the smart ass.

She snarled, and lunged forward, obviously aiming to kill one or the both of us. She was still a young Strigoi though, and not in complete control of her power. I gathered what little strength I had left, and swung the sword with every fiber of my being. It hit her neck, hard and deep. The sword was dull, and almost stuck when I pulled it out again. Thankfully, it didn't. I continued to hack, the sword going deeper into her neck with each mindless swing.

Finally, I dropped the sword from my trembling hands, expecting to die then and there. I didn't, though, and looked at the body in front of me on the floor. Oh yes, she was definitely dead. All of the blood made that clear, and so did the decapitated head lying nearby. The dead eyes looked at me in shock as though they couldn't believe what had just happened, and that made two of us. I, Rose Hathaway, had just killed my first Strigoi. While still an unqualified novice, and one who some people would consider unfit to _ever_ become a guardian.

I looked up to see Mason standing not three feet from me. He had the same hardened look on his face that I'd seen when he first dropped the gun and charged toward Isaiah. Our eyes met, locked, and the expression dropped.

I felt as though a missing piece of my soul had been found when my dark brown eyes met his gleaming blue ones. I suddenly felt weak in the knees, which was kind of an odd feeling to have, the feeling of desire, when I had just hacked off the head of a Strigoi. Mason dropped his sword in a clatter, and closed the distance between us with two strides.

His hands snaked around my waist, and pulled me into him. Our lips met in a kiss, different from the ones we'd shared while at the ski lodge. Those had been gentle, friendly. This one surpassed even the seemingly earth-shattering kisses Dimitri and I had shared. I would have collapsed if it hadn't been for Mason's strong arms supporting me.

We stood together, locked in an embrace for god only knows how long, until a snarky voice that none other than Christian could have managed.

"Seriously, guys? You just killed two Strigoi, your first kills for the both of you, and now you're standing around sucking each other's faces off?"

_**A/N- I've only read to the end of Frostbite, so from here on out, it's not going to follow the rest of the series, but you were probably able to tell that already from how Mason didn't die. I'll let you guys know right now that I'm horrible with updating, so I make no promises as to when the next chapter will be put up. It could be tomorrow, it could be a month from now. Anyways, hope you all liked it (and even if you didn't), and REVIEW! :)**_


	2. Of Unexpected Visitors

I glared at him and responded with my usual, oh-so-elegant response. "Fuck you, fire boy."

He smirked in the irritating way only he could manage. "Sorry, that's Liss's job."

While I'd already known about what had happened between the two of them in the church's attic (and almost experienced it myself, thanks to the damn bond), it was another thing to hear it firsthand from _Christian_. Lissa and I had already talked about it after I'd told her about being in her head right before they'd done it for the first time. The protective part of me, the guardian part, felt as though I should knock him back to the Academy for talking about her in that kind of context, the way that someone could mistake it for him calling her a blood whore. But, I didn't, of course.

At that moment, a herd of guardians came through the front door (almost trampling Mia and Eddie, may I add), and that was reason enough for me not to. Regardless of the Ozera family's disgrace, Christian was still royal. I was just another smart-ass novice, one who could get in serious trouble for attacking him.

Leading the pack was Dimitri, and since he was the first one through the door, he saw Mason and I. We still had our arms around each other. My hair was messy, even more so than usual, and Mason's face was quickly turning red, accentuating _his_ hair. So it was probably obvious to him (Dimitri, that is) what had happened. A range of emotion played across his usually solemn face, beginning with confusion, going to amused, then hurt, and finally angry. He didn't take it out though, not yet at least. I knew that he would yell at me when he had the chance though. Read-when no one else was around.

Mason and I sprang apart, attempting to straighten our disheveled appearances.

"Miss Hathaway, what happened here?" Dimitri asked, motioning to the carnage in the room.

I started from the beginning, when we were kidnapped in the alley, being sure to stick to the facts and not glorify our killings of Isaiah and Elena. I may have just killed a Strigoi, yes. But I'd still taken (theoretically speaking in this case, of course) a life. I felt sick, thinking of what I'd done to Elena, the horrible shriek she'd made when the dull old sword first made contact with her neck.

"We were leaving the mall in Spokane, to return to the ski resort after these three idiots had run off thinking they could kill the Strigoi themselves." Here I stopped briefly to gesture at Mia, Eddie, and Mason. The three of them made noises of protest, but Dimitri took no notice.

"Go on." He commanded me.

"We were walking down an alley, right when it was starting to get dark, and a van pulled up beside us. Three humans pulled us into the van, not even giving us a chance to fight.

But they were threatening Mia and Christian, and I wasn't about to rebel and have the two of them shot. They brought us to this house, and put us in the basement. We were tied with plastic flex-cuffs to chairs in two rows. Mia and Christian sat next to each other, facing us three dhampirs, who sat in a row. The humans went and got two Strigoi by the names of Isaiah and Elena. They came down and made a big show of threatening us before finally getting to the point. All three of us (being Mason, Eddie, and myself) were going to die. Christian and Mia had a choice. The first one of them who drank from one of us would live, and become Strigoi. The other one would die."

I took a break to catch my break and Mason jumped in where I'd left off.

"Before they left, Isaiah drank from Eddie, as though to torment Christian and Mia since we weren't going to be getting food, water, and in their case, blood. He would come back down every so often to take another drink and taunt us, asking when one of them was finally going to drink. After two days of this, our guards (humans) let slip that the Strigoi were out of the house at present. Rose used some pretty clever wordplay to get Christian to pretend he was finally ready to drink from her. Instead though, he made it look as though he was while he channeled his magic through her so it would melt the plastic flex-cuffs securing her wrists to the chair. Once she was free, the two of them took out the guards before untying the rest of us. We went up stairs, expecting to have a free break to the door and then back to the resort, since it was sunny. What idiots we were."

I continued talking. "Isaiah and Elena showed up, and I distracted them while everyone else ran out the front door. I was fairly sure I was about to die when this moron here (Mason) charged back in and staked Isaiah. I grabbed the two swords from above the fireplace. We held her off for a bit until I got a shot and uh…I think the rest is pretty clear." I ended awkwardly, looking down at the decapitated head, and then realizing it had been a bad idea.

Dimitri nodded briskly, taking in all we had told him. "Very well. There's a van outside to take the two of you, Mia, Christian, and Eddie back to the resort."

Mason began to protest, wanting to stay and help, but was answered with a firm no. I made no such protests. I didn't want to stay in that room any longer, or I was going to be sick. When we passed Dimitri, he stopped me with an outstretched arm.

"You and I are going to talk about this when we get the chance." He told me firmly, but quietly.

I wanted to tell him that there wasn't anything to talk about. That he and I were over for good. I was with Mason now and that was where I was happy to be. But now was not the time, nor the place to tell him. I merely nodded my head and continued on my way.

Once back in the van with everyone, I sat next to Mason and laced my fingers through his.

Christian whistled under his breath, long and low. "Oh man, everyone at school's going to have a field day with this. Not to mention that the two of you are the weirdest couple _ever._ Hooking up in a room where you just killed two of the walking dead? Not even Lissa and I are _that_ weird."

I thought about flipping him off, but decided against it and leaned against Mason, who seemed to be glowing with happiness. I felt funny inside, knowing that I was the one who'd made him so happy.

"So, where does this put us?" He asked me softly, when the other three had fallen asleep. It wasn't surprising though, considering what we'd been through.

I gave him a smoldering look and he melted. "Where would you _like_ to be?" I asked suggestively, ever the flirt.

The look on his face was priceless; I _loved_ catching him off guard.

He returned the smoldering glare, and I found myself blushing, thinking that he was actually quite sexy with that expression on his face.

"You _really_ want to know where I want us to be?" He asked throatily.

I was unable to speak, so I nodded my head, dumfounded. If everyone at school could see me now. Rose Hathaway, the famous heartbreaker and supposed blood whore, blushing over teasing. I thought of what Jesse Zeklos would say, and then pushed the thought from my mind, he didn't matter to me.

"In bed."

I couldn't help but laugh at his suggestive tone.

"In your dreams, Ashford."

He kissed me unexpectedly, taking my breath away. An unfamiliar tingling sensation came to my face.

When we arrived back at the resort, there were two things that needed to happen first and foremost. Mia and Christian needed to get to a feeder after going three days without blood, and Eddie needed to see a doctor after three days of _losing_ blood. I took care of the former while Mason bore Eddie to the infirmary.

I walked Mia back to her room so she could sleep and then returned with Christian to the room I was sharing with Lissa so he could see her. Mason was already there, filling her in on what had happened.

Christian and I moved to our significant others, and the four of us sat facing each other. Mason and I were seated on my bed, and Liss and Christian across from us on her bed.

When Liss saw my fingers were intertwined with Mason's, she grinned widely.

"You guys are together now?"

I nodded happily.

"You know the two of you are going to both get a _molnija _mark now, right?" Christian broke in.

"Wow, way to be random. We aren't full guardians yet though." I responded.

"It doesn't matter. You made the kills. You get the _molnija, _and the promise mark laster." Lissa replied.

We sat there talking until there was a knock on the slightly ajar door. I slipped my fingers from Mason's hand, and went to answer it.

Honestly, it was the last person I was expecting to see. I would have expected to see Dimitri, Adrian, even _Kirova._ But definitely not this.

"Um, Mom? What're you doing here?"

**_Author's note- Ha! Betcha didn't think I'd be back so soon, didja? I was typing like mad to get this done because I originally worked on it today at school and then added a ton of stuff to it. Hope you all like! Oh, I'm aware these first two chapters have been kind of short, but just been catching everything up to speed. After this is where it's really going to pick up, so hold on to your hats ladies and gents :)_**

**_Love from,_**

**_Lady Josephynne_**

_**Oh, a quick review reply to **__**megpie93-**__** Oh, believe me, I've got something special planned for that. It's going to be either next chapter or the chapter after that.**_


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